Hope: A Tragedy by Shalom Auslander

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Shalom Auslander, the bitter and hilariously twisted American-Jewish memoirist
and short-story writer, has written his first novel. It was never going to
be a gentle comedy of manners, but it’s still shocking to find it as
subversive and grotesque as anything published by the mainstream press.

We first meet Solomon Kugel, the beleaguered protagonist, when he has just
moved his family to a quiet country town. Somewhere where you could never
imagine your home being invaded by an old crone who defecates down your air
vents and refuses to leave. But within days of moving in, after the smell
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